


Lighting in the Sky

by ConfessionForAnotherTime



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Minor Character Death, Pre-Canon, Sarge has an actual Name, battle buddies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-03 22:59:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12757878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConfessionForAnotherTime/pseuds/ConfessionForAnotherTime
Summary: Sarge reflects on his time as an ODST.





	Lighting in the Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Can't be complete without the art by tumblr user [sxpaiscia](https://sxpaiscia.tumblr.com/)<3 Thank you for being my partner in this!

\---

[ _Helljumper_ ](http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Orbital_Drop_Shock_Trooper) _, Helljumper, where you been?_

 _Flowers._ Sarge shook his head. Butch knew how to keep him in line. The two of them in ODST training had been quite the pair. The best of friends. The closest of partners. Boyfriends. Lovers. Whatever you wanted to call it, that was them. Sarge stroked the picture in front of him, wondering why he hadn’t backed them up on something digital. It made more sense to keep them as physical things. He cast his eyes over to the picture torn in half…

Butch had torn the picture the last time he saw him, right before he had been sent away on that secret mission in that special ops. Sarge hadn’t seen him again. He had kissed it, leaving the picture with Sarge before uttering, _“So you have something to remember me by…”_ Caressing the picture, Sarge remembered the feel of Butch’s lips on his own, the heat coming off his body and wishing he could still tangle his fingers in those long, wild locks that always hung freely around his face. Sarge had no way of knowing how Butch managed to keep them a secret from their superiors, but there were so many secrets in the military, something as simple as hair could easily slip past them when someone kept their helmet on so much that Sarge only saw his face on shore leave or in the seclusion of his bunk when Butch visited.

Sarge tucked the carefully torn picture away, knowing Butch still had his half. He hadn’t heard from him in enough years for him to consider his former partner dead. He could check the database if he felt like it, but something seemed wrong about it. _No need to check what I know is already confirmed. Butch would come back._ Sarge hefted out a sigh, remembering the days from before.

_Feet first into hell and back again!_

\---

_When I die please bury me deep!_

“Davis! Over here! You too, Flowers!” Cooper scrambled up from his seat in the mess hall, noticing another man getting up at the same time. Cooper raised an eyebrow at the sudden call, not understanding why he and Flowers would be put together.

“Sir?” Flowers nodded at their sergeant when the two of them approached.

“I’m wanting the two of you paired together. Coop, you’re a tough son of a bitch and Flowers, you balance him out. With the two of you going into training to be Helljumpers, you need to have someone watching your back. So I’ve appointed you two.”

Cooper looked over Butch. The man seemed far too cheerful for being told that he would be assigned a partner when they had been previously told they would be allowed to pick. However, commanding officer’s orders always outweighed preferences of soldiers in training.

“Yes, sir. Is there anything else we should know?” Cooper stood tall, puffing up his chest a bit.

“Yep. You two have night duty tonight. I want the two of you securing the perimeter and ensuring that everything stays free and clear. You gotta be ready for anything so what better way for that than to have the two of you stay up all night? There isn’t rest on the battlefield. Dismissed.”

Cooper made a face and Butch clapped his hand on Cooper’s shoulder. “Hey now, don’t look discouraged. If anything, it will give us time to get to know each other. That way, we have plenty of time to be able to figure the other out as we get ready for this training. How does that sound, buddy?” Butch smiled widely at the assignment and impending weeks the two of them would spend together.

“Sounds peachy!”

The two of them grabbed what was left of their meals, wolfing down what they could before leaving the mess hall. With each of them being put with the other, their bunks would need to be closer. With Cooper in dormitory E and Butch in dormitory H, they quickly found a commanding officer who would would be able to move them closer. Officer Brown was able to get them situated, despite needing to leave to take care of another set of soldier who weren’t a part of the ODST training: special operations, deep in the jungle, and his immediate attention was needed.

As the two of them settled into their new bunk in dormitory T, they both found it had something none of the other dorms had: quiet. There was no one bunking here aside from them.. Cooper heard the click, though he wasn’t sure where it came from. He raised an eyebrow in Butch’s general direction, only to be met with a smile. “I keep pictures. Physical ones. Makes it easier. Sometimes your memories fade or you remember it differently. This makes it easier to know exactly what happened.”

“Well,” Butch continued, “looks like we can set this place up to be just like home if we wanted to. Set up a table here, a desk there, and we could make this whole place seem nice and homey. What do you think?”

Butch smiled over at Cooper, tilting his head and closing his eyes at the thought. He missed the sour look.

“Maybe we should just stick to keeping things regulation and not rock the boat trying to frou-frou up the place with things that my wife Jenna would think are cute. There is a thing as too much, you hear?” Cooper set his trunk at the edge of his bed, and grabbed his rifle. He dug through the trunk at the end of his bunk for what supplies he had left to clean it, keeping his back to Butch for the moment. _Keep it with you. Keep it clean_. He stripped out the barrel, cleaning out the grime that had gotten lodged from their last training. He didn’t want to think of making the place seem like home. Nothing about this was home. Nothing felt familiar or safe as from his own need to be up on his guard at all times.

Maybe he just missed Jenna. Maybe he didn’t like the change. Maybe he just needed to follow orders and accept the fact that this was how things were going to be. Cleaning his rifle wouldn't bring him any closer to figuring out the what to do of the entirety of the situation, but keeping his hands busy kept his mind off of all the other racing thoughts. Cooper kept thinking about how Butch was as far as he could get from having a battle buddy that was like him in any way. The man spent his time doing yoga and requesting hugs from anyone he could. Several soldiers thanked the chain of command for the sake of knowing they wouldn’t be getting a hug from this guy. It was going to be difficult, being in this close proximity, but he would deal with it. He had dealt with worse in his time in the military. At first, Cooper had been excited to have a battle buddy, but this was just ridiculous. Cooper tucked his rifle into his trunk. With any luck, the start of training tomorrow would lead them to a mission later. Cooper heard the snap of another picture with his arm covering his eyes as he waited for lights out. He lifted his arm, being met with the same charming smile that he had seen the first time a picture was taken.

“Ya know, most people fix to ask permission before just snapping random pictures of people.” Cooper covered his eyes again. Maybe that would teach him to ask before just doing.

“I’ll remember that for the next one.” Butch crawled up the ladder to his bunk up top, though Cooper didn’t see much point to him taking the top bunk when the two of them had a whole barracks rack to themselves. “Hey, Cooper?”

“Hmm?”

“You ever wonder why we’re here?”

Cooper kicked the trunk at the end of his bunk. “No.”

 _Place an_ [ _MA5_ ](http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/MA5_Series) _down by my feet!_

\---

_Don't cry for me, don't shed no tear!_

Their first jump. They had trained for weeks for it, but it didn’t make what they were about to endure any easier. High velocity tunnels and freefalls were no match for the speed in which an orbital drop shock trooper, or ODST, entered. They were expected to go, keep moving, and complete the objective at all costs. They knew the risk when they had signed up, but that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t be scared as hell. Cooper braced himself as soon as his pod hit the ground, the restraints keeping him in place. He thanked whatever kept him alive and conscious through the drop. Even if it meant being fully aware of everything that was happening. No one ever said this was going to be easy. Cooper stumbled out of his pod after shoving the hatch open, grabbing his rifle and ensuring he had enough bullets for whatever might come up on this next leg of the mission. He gestured over to Butch, who had just made his way out of his own pod as well. The other pair that was with them joined up and Butch led the the small party over to where they were bringing back the information as their objective. Stealth may not have been their original designation when it came to everything, but it definitely was their target objective on this mission.

Watch and learn. Don’t make a noise. You’re here to figure out intel. Cooper kept his eyes on the area in front of them as Butch signaled for the other team to head in a different direction to get a different perspective on the situation. Akers had been given the task of collecting data from one of their stations and she needed Jamison to cover her backside while she made the transfer.

Minutes went by while Cooper and Butch watched the enemy combatants make their own rounds, passing by the spot where the two of them stayed hidden. Staking out a good spot to watch the aliens as they attacked was also a good way to know what they were like and how to counter them for when other troops would be set to face them head on.

They learned little from what they could see as their vantage point wasn’t the greatest. “Why did we pick this spot? We can’t even tell what’s going on.”

Butch’s cheerful tone popped up over the communication link. “Because this is the direction we went. We needed to watch how they work. We can still see them.”

Cooper closed his eyes and wished for Butch to knock it off with the cheer. This wasn’t the time for it when one of their hulking alien types was not far from them and could discover them at any point.

“I really don’t understand how you can sound so chipper in a time like this. This should be when yer ready to go screaming at the enemy and we can’t even do that because we’re stuck here just watchin’ ‘em. Frustrating.”

Static crackled over the communication device inside their helmets, followed by a scream and the sound of gunshots. The two on the other end didn’t even have time to call for help as the other end of the radios went silent. Even if he couldn’t read his face, Cooper could see the grim look just by staring at Butch’s helmet. The two of them were alone.

“What do we do?” Butch whispered over the comm. They may have planned for a worst case scenario, but with half the team down and their communications cut, the two of them were down to using their wits to keep themselves alive. Cooper laid there on the ground. They would need to stick with this so they could at least get to where Akers and Jamison were to be able to get the information in the first place, if they could, before they could get out of there. The mission was already in jeopardy and without the intel on these alien things, how they worked, what they were here for, they wouldn’t be able to mark this as a success. Cooper took a deep breath.

“We need to figure out a way to get over to where they were and make it so that we leave with the intel that we need on how their ships work and ya know, ourselves intact as well as getting what we need from this. Those two may be gone, but we can still make this work.”

Butch nodded and the two of them stayed out of sight. From their vantage point, they could see a room, and one with a door.

After getting inside, Butch and Cooper knew why it had a door, with the dust covering every surface and broken cleaning supplies from when humans still ran the base strewn about. Butch waved a cobweb out of his face as they entered, despite their helmets. It seemed like an oddity in their ships from what they saw, but the dwellings they took over when the aliens went planetside seemed different. They adapted to the species that was there and used their structures.

From their vantage point, Cooper could see an opening that allowed them to make it over to the room and he signaled to Butch to follow him. The two of them crept over to the room that the aliens had left unused for a while, giving Butch and Cooper an advantage in how the base would work to a degree.

“We need to radio for help.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Cooper shot back, getting quiet a moment later when he heard the shuffling of feet outside the door.

After several hours passed, the two of them were starting to get less and less hopeful that someone would be coming to find them. They hadn’t been able to get out a radio signal, but overall, their situation was looking less and less likely to be a rescue and more likely to be a loss overall, leaving them for dead behind enemy lines. Cooper heard the very quiet click he had gotten used to hearing during their physical and ODST training that made him snap his neck over to the sound.

“What in the Sam Hell are you doin’?” he hissed over the comm, eyes darting over to the door and noting the lack of movement on the other side.

“I take it with me everywhere. Figured I would get one last picture to remember everything by. In case someone needs to know what happened here.” Butch hid the camera back into his tactical pack, pulling out a small stack of physical pictures. Cooper tilted his head. He hadn’t seen physical pictures except in museums. He saw several of himself that he never noticed the click go off for.

“You keep pictures of me?” Cooper raised an eyebrow, gauging the situation. If he was going to die at the hands of alien race then he was going to find out why Butch would have kept pictures of him with him all this time.

“I… yes. You’re quite the handsome man and well, it’s easier if I don’t always have to look at that scowl that you give me every time you look at me.” Butch shuffled the pictures between his fingers, dropping one of them on the floor. Cooper picked it up, scratching his head.

“This was after we finished our training not more than a week ago. Why in the hell would you keep this picture?” Cooper’s gloved hand gripped the picture, hoping that Butch’s answer was better than what he could come up with. He couldn’t come up with anything.

“We’ve been together this whole time. You’re a jumper with me. We’re in this together. And with Helljumpers, we’re together to the end. I just didn’t think the end would come so soon.” Butch stopped on a particularly rare picture of Cooper mid-laugh. “So I keep them with me to remind me of the good things when things get bad.”

Cooper nodded, offering the picture of the two of them back to Butch, only to have the hand pushed back at him. “Keep it. You seem like you need something good in your life too. Have you not heard from Jenna?” Cooper squinted through his visor at the sudden shift in topic.

“She told me she found someone else not long ago. She said she would be getting papers drawn up so that when I was back planetside we could settle everything quietly. If she’s happy, that’s all I want.” The low lilt in Cooper’s voice didn’t go unnoticed.

“Is that why you’ve been extra abrasive toward me in the last few months during our training?” Butch asked, covering Cooper’s free hand with his own.

“It isn’t just at you, but it’s part of it.”

“And the other part of it?”

“Just me trying to figure out… things. Just not sure if I’m wantin’ to act on any kind of feelin’s I had started developin’ since we were spending so much time together. I’ve only been attracted to women and now you’re here, confusin’ that all up.” Cooper didn’t pull away from the hand, but didn’t embrace it either.

“Nothing says anything has to happen with it.”

“That’s the part -” Cooper cut himself off when he shadows start to shuffle across the outside of the door. He couldn’t have this conversation now. Not when they were in this much danger. Cooper heard nothing but his own steady breathing and Butch’s over the comms. He pushed the picture into his own tactical pack and signaling for Butch to do the same. Butch nodded, putting the pictures away and waiting.

Cooper turned his hand to hold onto Butch’s as the day drew on, his stomach growling before too long. They had to do something. They had to get out of there. They had to see if something was going to come of their imprisonment. An out hadn’t been possible the entire day and as it drew on, the two of them had grown more anxious.

As night fell, the sounds of aliens moving about quieting to only scattered noises,, Cooper noticed something strange on the back side of the room. If he remembered what the base looked like before he came in, the information they needed was on the other side of the wall they had their backs to. With the handful of grenades at their disposal, they could create a diversion.

“Hey, Butch. Listen to me here. Grab one of your grenades. When I tell you to, I need you to quickly open the door and toss it out into the base. Trust me on this. When you throw that out there, it’s going to be right after I blow this back wall out. I want you to run through the wall and we need to get outta here as quickly as we can. Got it?”

Butch nodded, crouching behind the crate that would allow him to toss the grenade out the door without taking any of the blast that would take out the back wall. They wouldn’t be protected from the heat and they would need to watch for shrapnel, but the two of them could still do as much as possible to stay out of harm’s way.

Cooper pulled the pin, rolling the fragmentation grenade over to the wall on the other side, crouching behind the second crate. The deafening explosion left him temporarily deaf in his right ear though he figured it would return in time. It had every other time before now. Cooper nodded over at Butch, watching the quick open and shut of the door and the vibration of the second explosion on the other side of the base that would help them escape.

With the aliens distracted, Butch made a run for it, gunning down the aliens that he had to in order to carve a path for the two of them to escape through. Cooper grabbed the drive with the information they needed, quietly bidding a goodbye to the two fallen soldiers that had come with them.

“People will know you did well here.”

_Just pack my box with PT gear!_

\---

_Cuz one early morning 'bout zero-five!_

Their commander didn’t take the deaths of Jamison and Akers lightly, but having retrieved the information needed to be able to further study the aliens, it was deemed an unfortunate but acceptable loss. Cooper and Butch had other things on their mind beyond the mission, like what had happened during it. Cooper hadn’t told anyone about what Jenna had asked of him, and now that Butch knew, he felt like he needed to elaborate, but Butch never asked. He never pressed. He allowed Cooper the time to process what he had offered as well as what he would need in this time.

Cooper sat across the table from Butch, tapping it and nodding. “Follow me. I’ve thought about what you said. About Jenna too.” Butch nodded in reply, getting up from the table in the mess hall and following Cooper over to their barracks. No one else had been assigned to their barracks even in the days where they had been stuck on the mission and Cooper had made his decision about the entire situation with Butch.

Cooper couldn’t keep his hands off of Butch the moment they had the room to themselves. After being kept in such close proximity for so long without being able to even so much as touch the other, Cooper was desperate for any sort of contact. The mission had forced them to be quiet for days, unable to do anything more than breathe during the day and hope they weren’t caught. Cooper kissed Butch hard, pulling at the armor plating and discarding it quickly. He didn’t even take the time to release all of the seals of Butch’s suit before releasing the seals at Butch’s groin. Cooper dropped to his knees pulling Butch’s half hard cock out and taking it into his mouth. Cooper made a low laugh in his throat as Butch rubbed his fingers across the fuzz of his buzzcut; Cooper kept his hair regulation as often as possible. For the first time he wished he didn’t as Butch’s hands ran over his head, his soft moans escaping his lips. He wished that Butch could pull his hair a little to thrust into his face just a little, but Cooper took the lead instead. He pushed back Butch’s foreskin, licking his lips in anticipation.

He swallowed around Butch’s shaft, feeling his hips buck and smiling around the thick, pulsing flesh between his lips. Cooper dug his fingers into Butch’s hips, pushing him firmly against the wall as he suck his shaft down again after a slow, purposeful pull off of him. The shallow breaths and small noises that his lover? partner? boyfriend? (He didn’t even know at this point) were enough to get himself harder inside his own armor. Now wasn’t about him though. After the quiet, he wanted to hear the moans that Butch could make so he started moving slower, drawing the noises out of Butch and he swirled his tongue around the head of his shaft, flicking it over the frenulum just under the head and keeping his foreskin pushed back so he could hear every whisper and moan of his name escape Butch’s lips.

“How did you learn how to do this?” Butch asked between panted gasps, thrusting his cock into Cooper’s throat. Cooper could tell that Butch was getting closer with the way his sack was drawing up, so he slowed even more. Cooper released Butch’s shaft from his mouth, licking it softly and looking up to see the pained expression of need looking back at him. “Please don’t tease me like this.” Cooper grinned. He sounded so unlike the Butch he knew every other moment, pleasantries and formalities and chipperness replaced with wanting and need and a desperation even after their mission. Quiet.

“Do you want this?” Cooper asked, softly stroking the hard cock in his hands as he looked up at Butch’s face, looking for a moment of hesitation. “We talked ‘bout this when we could before, but it seemed like a joke and this? This here doesn’t feel like a joke. So do you want this? With me?” Cooper paused, his hand stilled while he waited for his answer. He should have asked before now, but it seemed important to ask before the attachment was made completely and neither of them was able to back away from whatever it was they were going to call this.

“I want this. With you. Not because it would be de-lightful to be able to cum right now, but because I meant what I said when we were hiding. Together to the end.”

Cooper got up off his knees, kissing Butch for the first time since any of this had started. He held him close and closed his eyes.

“When I thought we were going to die in that base, I couldn’t think of anything about how pissed I was at Jenna for leaving me like that. Come to find out, I’ve had someone who cares about me both on and off the battlefield right next to me the whole time. I just… I’m not good at this whole emotions thing.” Cooper rested his forehead against Butch’s, ruffling his bangs.

“No need to talk about the feelings or make sense of it until it does make sense. I just know that I’m here. I want you here.” Butch kissed Cooper’s forehead when he pulled away just a bit and started making his way to guide the both of them over to the bed. This time, Cooper was the one being slowly undressed, his armor being pulled away and his exosuit peeled off. Butch joined him and laid down next to Cooper, pressing another quick kiss to his forehead.

“Nothing has to happen unless you want it to beyond what’s already happened.” Butch paused for a moment. “Do you want to take this further?”

“Shut up and kiss me.” Cooper pulled him over roughly, kissing Butch with an intensity that he hadn’t felt since he had left for the military. The years had been lonely and this was helping fill that loneliness. Butch was someone who could understand without much explanation over what was needed. He knew. He could get it because he was there living it just as much as Cooper was. If Jenna wanted to go off and do her own thing, then he could too.

Much of the nuances of what was happening were lost on Cooper, not really understand what went where until he felt the tight warmth of Butch Flowers sinking onto his cock and taking him in inch by inch. He didn’t realize he was holding his breath until Butch told him to breathe. Cooper sucked in a deep breath, his eyes fluttering as Butch started to ride him.

“Well, that’s sweeter than a cold lemonade in summertime,” Cooper muttered out, his hands finding their way to Butch’s hips. He ignored the laugh Butch had made at his comment, instead thrusting up into him once they had found a rhythm and fucking him back as much as Butch was riding him.

“You feel good there too,” Butch panted out between each of Cooper’s thrusts, the two of them losing track of time the longer they were connected. When Butch finally came, Cooper was confused at the semen on his stomach, but the change in how Butch felt around him was enough to push him over and he released himself inside the man still riding his cock.

Butch grinned, collapsing next to Cooper and pressed a kiss to his temple. He reached over to grab the tactical pack with his pictures and handed one of them over, one with the two of them together in armor. He had written _Together_ over it on his side and allowed Cooper to do the same as soon as the two of them caught their breath.

Cooper smiled, his thoughts cut off when Butch tore the picture in half and handed the side he had written on with him on it over to Cooper. “This is to us.”

_The ground will rumble, there'll be lightning in the sky!_

\---

_Don't you worry, don't come undone_

“Sarge, you okay in there, sir?” Simmons called through the door, with a simple knock.

“I’m fine!” Sarge called back, not getting up. He wiped the tears from his face. He knew his voice wouldn’t conceal his emotions, but his team knew. They knew when he cared about something, about someone. If he cared enough, he would cry without the same emotional confinement that the rest of them had. He had caught Simmons crying once, but not the way he did. Sarge pulled the picture close, holding it over his heart while wiping the back of his hand over his eyes again. Memories of the past had this hold on him that he would never quite understand, but he still held them close.

He reached back and touched the edges of the tattoo on his back, the same design that every ODST got, feeling how it was raised in spots still despite it being years since he had gotten the tattoo. Butch had gotten a matching one on his back as well, also running down his spine and spanning both shoulders with the ODST crest. The training he had developed there could never be taken from him and the people he met never forgotten. Sarge laid back on the bed, his fingers wandering down to his hip, tracing where the lines of the flower, a simple white orange blossom, graced his skin. The white had started to fade over the years, the orange turning to a more muted yellow.

“I know you’re still here, Butch. I know your memory will stay alive every single day.” Sarge held the picture up, staring at the inscription. His eyes lingered heavily over the word _Together_ longer than he expected. He felt the tears well up again, knowing his life couldn’t return to the simplicity of this life. Not anymore.

“I miss you, Butch.” Sarge brought the picture to his lips, wishing they had the same warmth that his boyfriend once did. “Things aren’t the same without you.”

_It's just my ghost on a PT run!_

 

[ _Helljumper_ ](http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Orbital_Drop_Shock_Trooper) _, Helljumper, where you been?_

  


**Author's Note:**

> The ODST Running Cadence is taken from [here](http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/UNSC_Marine_Cadence).


End file.
